Dear Tamer, Suhel, and Mahmood,
If We Could Go Back in Time… we would have made even clearer that our reaction came from our deep admiration for you and our appreciation of your political and social influence. We are, as we said, fans. Lila has sent your songs to countless people around the world and has made statements about the importance of your art publicly. As the daughter of an exile from Jaffa who lived and worked for Palestine his whole life, she ...

We write this piece as (disappointed) fans of the Palestinian hip hop group DAM at a time when the fierce attack on Gaza reminds us of grim realities that are the everyday stuff of life and death for Palestinian women and men.
With songs like “Who’s the Terrorist?” and “Born Here,” DAM gave thrilling political voice to a new generation of Palestinians who were no longer silent about the racism of the Israeli state. They challenged the state violence that was devastating ...

Bio

Lila Abu-Lughod, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, teaches anthropology and gender studies at Columbia University where she also directs the Center for the Study of Social Difference and the Middle East Institute. Her scholarship, strongly ethnographic, focuses on three broad issues: the relationship between cultural forms and power; the politics of knowledge and representation of the Muslim world; and the dynamics of gender and the question of human and women’s rights in the Middle East. Her award-winning books include Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society; Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories; Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East; Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt, and Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory. A leading voice in the debates about gender, Islam, and global feminist politics, her books and articles have been translated into 13 languages. Her research has been supported by many foundations including Carnegie, Guggenheim, SSRC and the American Council of Learned Societies. Her forthcoming book, “Saving Muslim Women” will be published next year by Harvard University Press.

Maya Mikdashi is a PhD candidate at Columbia University's Department of Anthropology and Co-Director of the documentary film About Baghdad. Maya is currently Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow and Director of Graduate Studies at the NYU Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies. She is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine.